Considering Roatan

[ROUS]

I'm looking at a post-Thanksgiving 2025 Roatan booking. Any concerns related to environment and/or boat operations from people with recent Roatan Aggressor experience? Thanks!

 

[Mike_4635]

Been on the Roatan Aggressor 5 times, last trip was June. Going back the first week of January. Great crew and good meals. Last year alot of coral bleaching but think things are turning around. Weather plays a big part on dive site selection. Hurricanes don’t normally hit Roatan but increase winds and rain.

Let me know if you have any questions.

 

[therookie]

No liveaboard experience, but just want to comment that the only concern that I would have is that November is historically the rainiest month for the Bay Islands, and December is the second rainiest. The more frequent rains can have quite a negative impact on visibility, and are also often accompanied by "norther" winds that make some of the dive sites typically frequented by the Aggressor difficult to do.

Also if the winds are high (from any direction) the Aggressor won't necessarily do the run out to Cayos Cochinos or over to Utila which is one of the main attractions of the LOB over island-based diving - the waves can be in the 2m range and even the daily ferries from the mainland often don't run to the islands in those conditions (the route for the run from La Ceiba on the mainland to Roatan goes not far from Cayos Cochinos).

That said the fact that they can move the boat to whatever dive sites around Roatan are most sheltered from the winds is an advantage. And we have done many trips to Roatan at that time of year and had wonderful weather for an entire week. So rainy season wouldn't for me be a "deal-breaker", just something to keep in mind...

 

[rongoodman]

I've only been on that boat once, back in 2021, but I have no interest in returning. Limited dive sites due to the winds and some less than pleasant interactions with the crew at the time. I'd suggest the Turks and Caicos boat as an alternative.

 

[boulderjohn]

No liveaboard experience, but just want to comment that the only concern that I would have is that November is historically the rainiest month for the Bay Islands, and December is the second rainiest.

I did two weeks at that time of year a couple of years ago--one week on land and one week on the boat. It rained and rained and rained and rained. The week on shore featured the famous sand fleas, and those suckers are terrible. Near the end of the liveaboard week, they took us ashore where they docked the boat because of coming worse weather, and we ate dinner in a restaurant under a thatched roof. The rain was so hard it came down on us through the thatch while the sand fleas were biting us. Other than that, it was great.

It turned out that the shore operation (Coco View) did many of the same sites as the liveaboard, and they were entirely different experiences. With Coco View, we were led to the parts of the site that were deeper than safety stop depth for a few minutes and then hurriedly hustled back to near safety stop depth so we could hover under the boat for another 20 minutes or so. On the liveaboard, we actually were allowed to to a complete dive on the site.

Lots of people truly love the Roatan experience. I won't be back soon, particularly in the post-Thanksgiving period.